


[Im]perfect Justice

by Irysrains



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Eventual Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Panic Attacks, Pining, Post Game, Rating will probably change, Role Reversal, Slow Burn, akechi is not ok™, eventual hurt/comfort, kind of? you'll see, more like im too lazy to find a beta reader, more tags will be added as time goes on, murderous thoughts (but they aren't acted upon), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-07 23:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20825528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irysrains/pseuds/Irysrains
Summary: For whatever reason, Goro Akechi was alive. For whatever reason, he had accepted a stupid deal to take part yet again in a game rigged against him. Only this time, things weren’t right. The phantom thieves were running rampant (or what was left of it anyway), nobody knew who he was, and it seemed as if the roles had been reversed. As the new year begins, so does a new game…Based on the Persona 5 “Good Ending” but Akechi is there too.





	[Im]perfect Justice

Goro Akechi wasn’t supposed to be alive. He had _died_ in Shido’s palace for fucks sake, and yet here he was. Alive as he ever could be.

_I shouldn’t have accepted that deal._ He thought to himself.

To be fair, he didn’t have much of a choice. A girl dressed in all blue who introduced herself as Lavenza had offered him a deal. To play in this rigged game again. And despite his firm denial, she pleaded with him. You have to accept this deal, she told him. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders, she told him.

Yet again, he said no. Still, Lavenza persisted. She told him that he was the only one who could save the world. Like hell he was going to become a hero and redeem himself. He wasn’t going to save the world and be a hero just because this girl he didn’t know was telling him to.

“Please Goro—” she started.

“I told you not to call me Goro.”

“I apologize. Akechi-san. The world has fallen into ruin. A false god named Yaldabaoth is in power. Please. You’re my only hope. You’re the only one who remembers.”

“Why should I accept your deal?”

“Do you really want to die by your father’s own cognition of you? It doesn’t have to end this way. I’m offering you a second chance, Goro Akechi. With the roles reversed, maybe you can fix things…”

Goro didn’t know what she meant by that. _What the hell does she mean, “The roles are reversed?” I’m not going to parade around acting all righteous. I’m going to do things my way._

When he asked what she meant, she didn’t answer.

In the end, he begrudgingly accepted. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but this surely wasn’t it.

At first, he didn’t know what was wrong with the world. Lavenza had told him that things weren’t right. The people didn’t have free will. That a trickster was at the center of all of this. Like hell if he cared what the people were doing and whether they had control of it, but he had to admit that he expected to see some sort of chaos.

He surely wasn’t expecting to see people walking around Shibuya as if nothing had happened. If Lavenza’s words were to be trusted, the whole ordeal was serious. That is, if he could trust Lavenza.

Whether he trusted Lavenza or not, he knew better than to take things at face value. There had to be someone behind all this, pulling the strings. He wasn’t sure if it was Lavenza or Yaldabaoth or someone else, but he was sure there was someone. And he was going to beat his manipulator at their own game. He would come out victorious.

He decided that the best course of action would be to look for any irregularities. He had to make sure that he was two steps ahead of this “trickster”. This trickster, who according to Lavenza, had given up free will by accepting a deal to revert the world to normal and to bring back the fame of the phantom thieves.

He suspected that this trickster might be one of the phantom thieves. As unlikely as it seemed considering their desire to rebel, the trickster being one of the phantom thieves just made sense in his mind. Who else would want the phantom thieves to be praised again besides the phantom thieves themselves? It could have just as easily been a fan of theirs such as that boy Mishima, but his gut told him that wasn’t the case.

If only Lavenza could have told him the identity of this trickster. That would have made things far easier for him, but of course things were never easy.

On the large TV screen outside of Shibuya station the newscaster was talking about how the police were retracting their arrest warrant on the Phantom Thieves. Everyone around him seemed to be relieved.

_So it seems Lavenza wasn’t lying about the deal that was made. The people don’t have free will and the praise of the phantom thieves is back. They must all be forced to submit to the will of the phantom thieves and blindly praise them. How sickening._

“Thank goodness! The police were corrupt anyway,” he overheard a lady nearby him speak.

“There’s no way the phantom thieves could be evil!” He heard from someone else.

“What do we even need the police for anyway? They can’t get shit done. We have the phantom thieves. That’s all we need,” the person standing next to him exclaimed.

Goro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Everyone around him was so blindly following the Phantom Thieves. It made him sick. He wanted nothing more than to strangle the neck of every single of the thieves—

He was fuming with anger. No one took any mind to him. They were all too busy with their sickening praise of the Phantom Thieves. It only furthered his anger.

Not a single person acknowledged him whatsoever, as if he was a nobody._ How **dare** they not pay attention to me? How **dare** they care more about the phantom thieves?_ He wanted nothing more than to go back to when everyone loved him. As annoying as it had been to constantly have fangirls asking to take a picture with him and be overly-excited over meeting him, he couldn’t deny that being admired and loved felt _good._ Even though he knew they wouldn’t like the real him, he couldn’t help but let himself drown in the praise.

All Goro wanted was to feel useful again. With the way the public was acting, he didn’t think that was possible. He despised every single one of them. All he wanted was to feel loved.

He was so consumed in his thoughts that he almost didn’t notice Akira standing in front of him.

How much he wanted nothing more than to kiss those perfect lips of his and hold him tight—  
No. He shook his thoughts away. He definitely did not have any feelings for him. All he wanted to do was to fucking _murder_ the boy. Maybe he could properly kill him this time.

But where would be the fun in that? He would rather watch him fall to his demise. But he couldn’t do that, for a reason he couldn’t understand. He refused to understand his reason.

His mind was split, unsure of whether he wanted to kiss or kill the boy in front of him. Deep down he knew that he couldn’t kill Akira again if he tried, but he refused to admit the feelings he felt towards the leader of the phantom thieves.

Then remembering his goal of finding out who the trickster was, he forced his thoughts away from what he wanted to do to Akira. He needed to focus.

Was there anything off about Akira? Well, for starters, he was alone. In all the time that Goro had knew Akira, he seemed to almost always be with someone else. But today there was no one else with him. He was just watching the TV screen like everyone else.

_Okay…_ Goro thought to himself. _That may be a little odd, but it’s possible. Perhaps he’s waiting for someone?_

Goro stood there, unsure of what to do. He was tempted to reach out to the boy in front of him, but he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. He wasn’t sure how Akira would react to seeing the boy who had tried to kill him and who then later died in Shido’s palace. Even though he wouldn’t admit it, he was afraid Akira would be upset over seeing him alive, and that was the last thing he wanted.

Looking back up at the news, he noticed that the newscaster was moving on to different topics. He pondered over what to do next.

Meanwhile Akira had turned around and was beginning to walk away. He passed by Goro without a second thought, as if he was just one of the countless strangers in Shibuya. Goro was dumbfounded, to say the least.

Before he really even had time to assess the situation, he had already ran to catch up with Akira.

“Hey—” he started but swiftly stopped when he noticed the quizzical look he was given in return.

“...I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Goro was almost certain he had never seen such a bewildered expression on Akira’s face before now.

Goro’s brain was working a mile a minute as to try and evaluate the situation. _Is he pulling a prank on me? Has my appearance changed? How do I respond? Despite his unpredictable nature, his seems out of character for him. Does he really not know who I am? Should I play it safe and pretend I had the wrong person? Or should assume it’s a prank?_

He decided to go with the former option. He concluded that the outcome would be far less embarrassing.

“Oh, sorry. I must have the wrong person,” he replied, flashing a smile in hopes that it would disguise the discomfort in his chest that was starting to grow.

Akira only nodded his head.

“Sorry for bothering you. I’m sure you must be very busy.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure we haven’t met? I could have sworn you look just like… a close acquaintance of mine,” Goro spoke, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Akira would remember him. He wasn’t sure why he felt this way.

“No, I’ve never seen you before,” Akira replied with more confidence in his voice than before.

Goro flashed Akira another smile. “Well then. I should be going now myself. I’m sorry for taking your time.”

He left before Akira had the chance to respond, his head filled with a multitude of questions but no answers.

_Why doesn’t he remember who I am? Where are the other thieves? Why has no one noticed me?_

Then it dawned on him.

**Author's Note:**

> uwu pls go easy on me this is the first fic im posting online (╥﹏╥)  
ngl this is like,,, one of the longest fanfics ive written i dont write fanfic alot haha i always end up giving up at some point but i PROMISE im gonna try to not give up on this  
also gonna be honest i had a little bit of trouble w goro and akira's characterization,,, hopefully i'll get better at it as i continue this fic!   
anyway comments and kudos are greatly appreciated


End file.
